


[META] Expanded Storytelling, the Box, and Star Trek Picard

by Thimblerig



Category: Star Trek: Picard
Genre: Gen, Meta, narrative structure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23065408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thimblerig/pseuds/Thimblerig
Summary: One thing that’s been coming up in chatter about the new Star Trek show is:So bleak, so depressing. Why does the story have to be so dark?I surely think some of that comes from the hazy golden lustre of the Good Old Days, always better than Now. And some of it is, undeniably, from, well, thatwasa very gory cold open for... you know the episode I mean. Characters we were attached todo die.But some of it, I feel, comes from the way ST:P tells its story, compared to TOS, and Next Gen, and VOY. So let’s talk about that...
Comments: 15
Kudos: 31





	[META] Expanded Storytelling, the Box, and Star Trek Picard

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: Contains non-graphic references to dark themes, including character death, off-screen massacres, experimental medicine. Spoilers for Next Gen. Very minor spoilers for ST: P.

One thing that’s been coming up in chatter about the new Star Trek show is: _So bleak, so depressing. Why does the story have to be so dark?_ I surely think some of that comes from the hazy golden lustre of the Good Old Days, always better than Now. And some of it is, undeniably, from, well, that _was_ a very gory cold open for... you know the episode I mean. Characters we were attached to _do die._ But some of it, I feel, comes from the way ST:P tells its story, compared to TOS, and Next Gen, and VOY. So let’s talk about that.

I’m going to make a brief excursion into my experiences as a reader of fanfic. Please bear with me.

Some fanfic uses the audience’s knowledge of the setting and characters as a shortcut. We know who these people are, what they look like, and how they relate to each other. We don’t need to spend time establishing who they are - just take them out of the kitset box, press play, and On To Adventure. It’s snappy and it’s fun.

And at the other end of that spectrum are stories that expand the existing text, that focus on the nuance, the emotional story, the unspoken consequences. “So that conversation that was skipped over because it’s just A telling B and C what the audience already knows - how did that go? Who flinched? Who talked in circles around a painful subject until somebody held their face in both hands and told them to breathe?” “Someone got stabbed but they’re okay next episode? Bit of a timeskip there, buddy. How did this intensely physical person manage an exhausted convalescence? How did that go?” “Oh... that time in the first season where someone was betrayed by their friends for complicated reasons and it was a great episode, but that betrayal never gets mentioned again - how does the memory of that inform people’s choices? What did it do to their friendship, and their trust? _How did that go?”_

It’s a kind of storytelling that overlaps a good deal with another fanfic stalwart: Hurt/Comfort. And that’s because it acknowledges that some pain doesn’t just get wished away at the end of a one-hour story. It respects the work of recovery and praises endurance. It wants emotional through-lines. It’s not for everyone - I know I’ve turned away from some stories because they seemed to dwell on pain with orgiastic glee for chapter after chapter. And yet - sometimes I need to know that characters can hurt, _really_ hurt, and that they can heal.

Star Trek: The Original Series, like many shows of its day, had a one-story per episode format - a group of fairly archetypal characters encountering a different story, a different issue, every week. Sometimes the plot was action-story cheesecake (eg. “The Gamesters of Triskelion”) and sometimes very concerned with social issues (eg. “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”). Two-part stories and callbacks were vanishingly rare. There’s a lot of merit in the format. A given story will march. We see a lot of stories per season and we’re not dependent on watching them in order. Sometimes we just want a bite-sized piece of plot and action, instead of committing to one chapter in a novel that will take months to finish. Kitset box storytelling is popular for sound reasons.

But. If you insist on keeping your characters archetypal, as TOS<1> did, character development is limited. Emotional through-lines are difficult. And pain - some of the TOS stories are incredibly painful - is tied off with a bow and walked away from.

(And hey, one of the fun things about fanfic is bringing back those through-lines, as I mentioned above. I’ve seen a _lot_ of stories that bring up Kirk-as-survivor-of-the-Tarsus-IV-genocide, or Spock’s issues with his dad. But that comes from outside.)

Next Gen and VOY cracked the box a little bit. (Tom Paris’s journey from semi-suicidal ex-crim to solid family man was delightful, for one example.) But. But. Let me talk about “Ethics”, from the fifth season of Next Gen. Worf breaks his back in an accident, feels that the prosthetics that Dr Crusher can offer him aren’t enough, and asks for help committing suicide in the Klingon manner (leaving his young son an orphan). After some back-and-forth about cultural values, the duty of friendship, and medical ethics, he is eventually persuaded to try an untested surgery that will either fix him entirely or kill him (again, leaving his young son an orphan). While I disapprove of his choice I understand it. But next episode he’s fine, just fine. We never hear of this story again.

And it feels so fucking dishonest?

_I don’t get to skip over my trauma._

If Next Gen and VOY cracked the box, DS9 kicked its sides in. Discovery said, “Hold my beer,” while writing two (soon three) novels over its shattered remnants. And ST:P exploded it and is dancing in the light-struck dustmotes.

It starts with consequences, for one thing. That supernova that was a convenient plot device for Abrams to reboot the timeline… of _course_ Picard and the Federation would want to help. And of _course_ they would fail. So: consequences.

It uses its budget, of money and equipment and time, to show us scenes with a lot of nuance - the flickers of people’s faces as they discuss difficult things. The awkward, hesitant, _incredibly tender_ hug an ex-Tal Shiar agent gives Picard after she saved his life, because that is a place they reached. _There are so many hugs, you guys._ Along with the hurt, it gives us so much comfort.

And it gives damaged people their day. They are not Starfleet’s Finest, not anymore - Raffi calls herself “the wreck of a good person” with reason. They fumble, they make mistakes, they do hard thankless jobs. They fail sometimes. I love them for it.

I get the complaints. I have wanted, and still want, simple and uncomplicated and happy stories sometimes. I know the box was a shield from some of the darker plots in earlier Star Trek stories. (Hey, remember that time Data went to court to not be vivisected by a Star Fleet-approved researcher? I thought that was pretty dark, myself.) I don’t think ST:P is without criticism - it could have trimmed its first four episodes down to three with good effect, for a start. I understand the grief of seeing a character I care about die. But.

One _memorable_ lesson that Next Gen gives us, in “Peak Performance" is: “It is possible to commit no mistakes, and still lose.” ST:P tells me, “It is possible to make mistakes, and still win. It is possible to be hurt, and keep going.” It tells me that we can always choose to be kind. And that’s why I love it.

END

<1> It’s certainly possible to do a story-of-the-week format while giving space to character arcs - _Leverage_ did it beautifully, for example - but I’m talking specifically about Star Trek.


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